Chapter 34

Chapter

Thirty-Four

My blood dripped from the silver dagger Dominic clutched as poison spread searing pain through my system. No wonder the demon amulet and the shifter dashed away to hide. Demise was lethal to any demon. I'd killed Ziva with just a stab to her chest.

Would this kill me?

"She's not going down." Dorian peeled himself off the tree trunk. "Do it again."

"Give it time." Dominic examined me from head to toe with a joyous gleam in his moss-green eyes. "It'll work."

The tingling of my neck tattoo registered even through the agony gripping me. Fane's phantom form materialized a few feet away, rage twisting his features into something feral and utterly terrifying.

Was he pissed he wasn't the one to end me?

Ebony veins emerged over my arms, crisscrossing my skin like black water rivers. As the poison soaked into my bloodstream, the veins stretched up my neck and down my torso. My lungs rattled, and I coughed up black blood.

Dominic smirked. "Told you."

I turned to Fane, his fists clenched and mouth curved into a vicious snarl. "Looks like they beat you to it." My energy drained, and I crashed to the ground with a thud.

As I stared at the night sky, the stars and treetops blurring, a violent roar shook the forest. The ground trembled, and birds burst out of the branches to escape the monster.

Dominic and Dorian dropped to their knees as if they couldn't stand the weight of the yell.

"How did he know!" Panic drained the blood from Dorian's cheeks, and he looked ready to vomit. "They aren't bound mates. How did he find out so quickly?"

The other wolf tried to stand, but an invisible force kept him from getting more than one knee off the ground. "I don't know," he yelled. "Fuck!"

A wave of agony collided into me, and I rolled over, puking thick, black liquid. Fire consumed me, and it felt like someone drove railroad spikes into my skull. My life was being eviscerated as the poison traveled through my system.

Of all the ways I could have died, I didn't expect Demise to be my undoing. Ziva was probably somewhere in purgatory, laughing at my shitty fate.

Tension mounted in the forest just before a howl ricocheted around us, and Fane emerged through the trees. As his gaze connected with mine, a flash of fury and pain hit me.

Pain. It was ten times worse than his anger. He hurt seeing me like this even though he wanted to kill me.

His focus swiveled to Dominic who still held the poisoned blade. "You. Are. Dead. "

Dominic tossed the knife to Dorian and began to shift into his wolf form. He wasn't fast enough. Not by a long shot.

Fane charged, changing into his beastly wolf in seconds. His sickle claws punctured Dominic's chest, and he tackled him to the ground.

"Dom!" Dorian climbed to his feet, brandishing the knife as he approached the fighting shifters. If given the chance, he'd stab Fane, and there might be enough Demise left to kill him.

Over my dead body.

Fighting off the nausea and unbearable throbbing, I struggled to my hands and knees, crawling toward the former beta. The presence of other shifters registered—they must have heard Fane's roar—but no one intervened. Did they understand what happened? Did they realize these two pricks attacked me, and Fane had every right to kill them?

Dorian was so preoccupied with Fane and Dominic that he didn't notice me. Sweat dripped down my cheeks, and my vision blurred, but I managed to bring my talons out on one hand.

One was all I needed.

I jabbed my claws into his foot, sinking through his boot as if they were made of butter. Dorian's shrill scream pierced my eardrums, and bile oozed up my throat. But I didn't stop. I ripped my talons out and slashed at his leg, spilling blood.

"Little bitch!" Dorian kicked me in the face, and pain erupted in my chin as the skin split. Ringing filled my ears, and the forest blurred as I rolled across the fallen leaves and dirt. When I stopped, Fane had his jaws wrapped around Dominic's throat. And he chomped down.

The snap of bone ricocheted, and the life zapped out of Dominic. Fane drew away, licking his mouth as his gaze—burning bright red like the fires of hell—landed on the former beta.

Dorian froze, fear pouring off him in thick, choking waves. Tremors raced through him so violently that he lost his grip on the knife. "It was all Dominic," he sputtered. "He stabbed Tate. Not me."

My beast didn't care who dealt the killing blow. They both had a hand in this. And they'd both die.

As Fane stalked toward Dorian, his bloody teeth showing and nostrils puffing like a wild animal, Marissa bolted out of the woods and stood in front of her mate.

"Don't fucking touch him, Fane!" The disgust and loathing in her words hit the demon shifter with a wave of clarity.

His huge, ebony form shook, and within seconds, his naked human form crouched in the beast's place. Crimson covered his face and hands and spotted his scarred, tattooed body. "You planned this, didn't you, Marissa?" Hatred dripped from every syllable like poison more potent than Demise. "You distracted me so they could get her alone."

"So what?" Marissa spat. "Weren't you saying how much you wanted her out of your life? She killed your brother. You wanted to kill her yourself."

The veins and tendons in his neck swelled, and he trembled with the effort it took to maintain his human shape. "No one touches what's mine ." He stood, revealing every hard, severe inch of him. "And anyone who does will earn my fucking wrath."

Mine.

That word from him had electric tingles crackling everywhere, distracting me from my death looming just around the corner. Fane declared me his.

His what, though?

There wasn't much time to find out. I'd be dead soon.

Fane stormed toward the two wolves, but Logan bounded into his path to block him.

"Don't, Fane."

"Get out of my way, Logan." His chest rose and fell with heavy, erratic pants. "I will hurt you to get to them."

Their voices faded as the forest distorted, and a heavy weight pressed on my sternum. My lungs squeezed while a high-pitched ringing slammed against my skull. Something metallic coated the back of my tongue.

Blood.

"She's going to die if we don't do something!" Logan's frantic words cut through the confusion in my mind. "We need to get her to the healers."

Fane pried his attention from his would-be victims, and as our eyes locked, the red sheen faded from his.

"Fiera mika."

The nickname flowed through my mind like a soft embrace. "My beautiful beast." My demon side always referred to him as that, but he fit the part now, naked and covered in blood. That should have frightened me, but it only made me want to curl into his arms.

Blistering fire erupted within my veins, and I suddenly convulsed, flailing on the ground. Logan appeared above me, pressing his hand against my torso to keep me still. When the seizure passed, I rolled over and coughed up more black sludge. A sob slipped out as my limbs burned and ached .

"Let's get her out of here." The high demon slid his arms under me, but a rough command ripped through the forest.

"No!" Fane crouched next to me, and at first, I assumed he wanted Logan to let me die. But then the demon shifter lifted me, cradling me against his bare chest. Warring emotions tore him apart as he tried to find a solution in the chaos.

Fane wanted to kill me. And he wanted to save me.

"Hurry, Fane," Logan said. "Julia knows you're coming."

He gave a curt nod and then sped through the forest so fast everything blurred. "I'm not letting you die unless it's by my hands."

"She needs a blood transfusion to diffuse the toxin." Hailey, a healer, rested her hand on my forehead, her butterscotch eyes boring into me as I rested on a bed in one of their rooms. "And even that might not work."

The scent of blood, death, and some kind of herbal shit infiltrated the air as I inhaled shallow breaths. Pain tore at my body while the Demise bubbled in my veins.

"I'll do it." Preston moved toward the small bed.

Fane stepped in his path. " I'll do it. I changed her."

Preston scoffed. "Oh, now you want to claim that? Earlier tonight, you ignored her and flirted with that evil bitch Marissa." He shoved Fane, but the demon shifter didn't budge. "Where were you when Tate was attacked? Messing around with Marissa?"

A low, threatening growl slithered out of Fane, and he pushed into his cousin. "Tate will never be yours, so why don't you quit sniffing around her like a stray. "

"So she's suddenly yours again?" Preston's sharp laugh erupted through the room.

"Enough!" Camus's alpha power exploded out, and the guys stopped bickering. "She won't survive the night if someone doesn't give her blood."

Logan forced his way between the two male shifters. "Fane, give her blood. Preston, let's find your father and ensure Dorian and Marissa behave."

Camus dragged his hand down his haggard face, his shoulders drooping. "You're a hundred percent sure Marissa was involved? It wasn't just Dominic and Dorian?"

Fane leveled a look at him. "You know exactly what your daughter is capable of. It's time to stop pretending she's someone else."

The alpha's lips thinned, but he didn't argue with Fane. Marissa was probably the mastermind in this whole murderous plot.

Fire flared through my insides, and I groaned, curling onto my side. Sweat beaded my skin.

Hailey cursed, and wood scraped against the floor as she dragged a chair to the edge of the bed. "We need to hurry. She doesn't look good."

Fane lowered to the seat as she rolled over a cart with a collection of medical instruments. "She's not a full demon, so Demise shouldn't kill her."

"Tate's circumstances are unusual." She fitted a rubber strap around his tattooed arm, his veins bulging. "You turned her, and you're half, but something else within her is also reacting to the demon poison."

The Infernal Sol of course. The ancient demon amulet wasn't immune to the toxin .

After Hailey stuck a needle in my arm, the room grew hazy. Fane's multicolored eyes, heavy and intense, were the last things I saw before darkness claimed me.

Would I ever see the light of day again, or was this my end?